Page 29 of Hearts Don't Lie
“Fine,” she uttered warily.
“Look, I don’t want to fight. I came to ask you to just be real with me, to find the courage to bare your soul to me. Can you? Be real with me? It’s just us. Everything else… I want it to fall away. I want this time with you. It’s why I insisted on you as my guide. You and I owe each other the details.”
“I told you before. I don’t owe you shit,” she said angrily, feeling her hackles rise as Stowe flashed through her mind.
“Yes, you do. You know you do. And I owe you. I wasn’t some teen boy with a perpetual hard-on. When I said forever, I meant it. Let’s start there. No matter what Alicia and my parents threw at us, we had something incredible, a love that most people can only dream about. Please, Mac.” His eyes drilled into her.
She swallowed and nodded, unable to find the breath to talk. Tonight it was just him and her. He wasn’t the international soccer god, the athlete who made tens of millions every year and more with endorsements, the pro that young kids and teens dreamed of playing like. Neither was he the gorgeous bad boy women wanted in their beds. Tonight he was just Hardin, the grown-up version of the beautiful teen she’d fallen in love with.
She sighed loudly. “I meant it too, Hardin. I fell so hard for you that losing you took my breath away. I had no one. I was so scared. So empty. I had to keep going. I had to.” Tears erupted again. “I—”
Hardin leaned in and pressed his forehead to Mac’s, his lips brushing over hers, then captured her mouth and kissed her like a drowning man.
